


Fate or Natasha

by Bear_shark



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Natasha Is a Good Bro, blind dates, sam is a good bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bear_shark/pseuds/Bear_shark
Summary: How it ended: Bucky watched the rise and fall of Clint’s chest while he slept. Every few minutes, he would snuffle and rub his face against Bucky’s chest. Bucky’s phone pinged, and he carefully checked his texts.Natasha: How did your date with Clint go?Bucky sat up quickly, jostling Clint. “What the hell?”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov/Sam Wilson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 119
Collections: Winterhawk Wonderland - 2020 edition!





	Fate or Natasha

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kidd_you_not](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kidd_you_not/gifts).



> Happy Holidays to Kidd_you_not. Thanks for the fun prompts! I hope you like this. :) 
> 
> Beta by supershan413

**How it ended** : Bucky watched the rise and fall of Clint’s chest while he slept. Every few minutes, he would snuffle and rub his face against Bucky’s chest. Bucky’s phone pinged, and he carefully checked his texts. 

Natasha: How did your date with Clint go? 

Bucky sat up quickly, jostling Clint. “What the hell?” 

\--

 **How it started** : Bucky squirmed away from Natasha as she attempted to brush his hair. 

“I’m not your Ken doll,” he said, scowling.

“Of course not,” she said. “Ken has better hair than you.” 

She dove for him, and he ran into the kitchen where Sam was cooking pancakes. It was breakfast for dinner night. 

“Ken has plastic hair,” Bucky said. “Right, Sam?” 

Sam shrugged, clearly deciding to keep out of it. Normally he took any opportunity to give Bucky shit about something, so his feigned nonchalance raised all kinds of alarms in Bucky’s mind. 

Natasha approached Bucky with her arms out like she was in a hostage negotiation. “I just want to try out a new style with your hair, so you can go on a date with my friend.” 

Bucky scooted around Sam, pushing him away from the stove and using him as a human shield. Searching for something to get him out of a blind date, he said, “If this guy is so great, why don’t you go out with him?” 

“Hey!” Sam protested, smacking Bucky in the stomach with his spatula. “Don’t give her any ideas.” 

Bucky winced but didn’t stop using Sam’s body as a shield to avoid Natasha’s grabby hands. She lunged for him and missed as he danced away. 

“Listen,” Natasha grunted, “Sam and I are a _couple_ . We want _couple_ friends. To go to brunch with or weekends away or out to drink or whatever it is couples do.” 

“Then bother Steve!” 

Sam, apparently unbothered with being in the center of their fight, said, “Steve is working his tiny ass through the whole of NY Grindr.” 

Bucky scowled at Sam. “I could be doing that, too.” 

Sam didn’t have to say anything. His raised eyebrow was enough to call Bucky on his bluff. 

Natasha used the distraction to outflank Bucky and wrestle him to the ground. Holding him in a leg lock, she brushed his hair out, pulling on the tangles a little harder than was necessary. He had an added disadvantage of having one arm, but the truth was Natasha had been besting him in wrestling ever since they were in foster care together. 

Bucky felt himself get lightheaded. He tapped on Natasha’s thigh. “Uncle.” 

“You’ll go on the date?” 

He gave her a weak thumbs up. 

“And you’ll brush your hair?” 

Bucky pinched the underside of her thigh. Because his disheveled look was working for him just fine, thank you very much. Natasha didn’t even flinch. Finally, he gave her a second thumbs up. 

After she released him, Bucky lay on the ground for a while, not caring that Sam had to step over him and Natasha to get back to the burned pancakes. Sam muttered some complaint that Bucky didn’t hear, but Natasha said, “You knew what you were getting into when you started this.” 

“I did,” he said, flashing her a smile that was so sweet, it made Bucky’s heart ache. He wanted a love like they had, Natasha wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t trust her setups. The last guy she picked for him was “exactly his type” and turned out to be a meathead big muscled swarthy guy with a face Bucky wanted to punch. Bucky wasn’t sure what his type was, but Brock wasn’t it. 

“So what’s he like?” Bucky asked Sam. 

Sam said nothing right away, so Natasha nudged him with her foot. 

“What?” Sam said. “Oh, I thought y’all were doing that spooky Russian best friend thing where you read each other’s minds.” 

Bucky groaned. “I hate you.” Sam thought he was so cute. He was, but Bucky would never tell him. 

“He’s a nice dude,” Sam said. “Little bit of a mess, but you’re a bit of a mess so… He’s a good guy.” 

Bucky and Nat shared a look. “A good guy?” he mouthed. 

Natasha took over. “He’s handsome and funny. Oh, and he loves dogs.” 

Giving up on cooking, Sam sat on the floor with them. “You should go on a date with the dude just to meet his dog.” 

Bucky sighed. He never won when they double-teamed him. “Alright. I’ll do it. When’s our date?” 

Natasha pulled out her cellphone. “In forty-five minutes. You better leave now.” 

“But breakfast for dinner!” Nevermind his unkempt clothes, and he hadn’t showered that day. He was entirely unready. 

Sam stood up and hefted Bucky up. “The lady has spoken. Get going.” 

Bucky wrinkled his nose and pointed at the two of them. “You planned this. And now I’m going to feel like an asshole if I don’t go.” 

“You are an asshole,” Natasha said, pushing him toward the door. “But go on this date, anyway.” 

Bucky looked at himself in the reflection of the microwave door. From what he could tell, Natasha’s attempt at hair brushing had made things worse, not better. “Where are we meeting? What’s the guy’s name?” 

Natasha grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him out the door. “The 110 is coming in five minutes. If you catch it and get off on the Broadway street exit, you’ll be fine. I’ll text you the rest of the details.” 

“But--” 

She closed and locked the door before he had time to ask another question. 

\-----

Bucky rushed downstairs and hopped onto the 110 bus just in time. It wasn’t full yet, and he found a seat toward the back. 

How Natasha got him to bend to her wishes was a mystery to him, but she’d been doing it to him since they were kids. Not to mention he’d had to clean up after her plenty of times. He wasn’t a jerk. If Natasha had promised some random man that Bucky would be there for a date, he would not stand up the guy just because his best friend fancied herself a matchmaker. 

Nat texted him that the guy would be wearing a red button-down shirt and sitting in the corner of Hot Lips Pizza, but no other information. That bit was likely intentional, as Bucky would no doubt be googling John Washisname on the bus ride over if he could. Instead, he dicked around on his phone. Tried to keep his elbows away from his torso so he didn’t develop pit stains and ran his fingers through his hair a few more times to tame the frizz. 

“Big night?” A guy said. Bucky looked up from where he had been caught in his own anxious thoughts. 

The guy who had spoken to him was built and blond, his shoulders stretched into a tight purple t-shirt, and Bucky was rendered temporarily speechless by his hotness. 

“You kinda had,” the guy pointed at his ears, “steam coming out.” 

Bucky blushed red and ducked his head. The guy grinned, beautiful and lopsided, and for a moment Bucky felt like earning Natasha’s wrath and ditching his date just to hang out in the sunshine of this guy’s smile.

“I got a date,” Bucky said. For a moment, the guy’s smile dimmed, but soon he was back up to full wattage. 

“You’ll do fine,” he said. 

Bucky shrugged. “I really know nothing about him. Just going because my friend is making me. Anyway, this is boring. What are you up to?” 

“Being boring,” the guy said. “I’m Clint, by the way.” Clint waved even though they were sitting next to one another, and it somehow made Bucky feel giddy having all of Clint’s goofy attention focused on him. 

“Bucky.” He waved back, certain he looked like an idiot but not really caring. “What are you doing that’s boring?” 

Clint stretched up his arms, making his shirt ride up, and yawned. “I worked a stupid long day. So now it’s pizza and shitty TV time. Plus beer and snuggles with my dog.” 

That sounded infinitely better than an awkward blind date. “Lucky,” Bucky grumbled. 

“That’s his name!” 

“Who?” 

“My dog!” Clint said. “His name is Lucky. Wanna see a picture?” 

As Bucky and Clint looked at dog pictures, a ball of regret grew in his stomach. He wanted to blow off his date to hang out with Clint, but that was a shitty thing to do to a stranger, and surely it was a dick move to ask Clint for his phone number while he was on his way to a date with someone else. 

Bucky’s phone pinged, and he checked his text messages. 

Natasha: He had to cancel. Looks like you are off the hook tonight. 

“What’s got you all happy?” Clint said. 

Bucky didn’t try to contain his smile. “My friend said my blind date canceled, and I was wondering if you wanted to--” 

“Watch Dog Cops and cuddle?” Clint said. “Hell yeah.” 

\----

 **Back to the ending** : Bucky tried calling Natasha, but she didn’t pick up. Instead, he texted while Clint looked over his shoulder groggily. 

Bucky: So it was a setup all along? 

Natasha: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Bucky: OK. Maybe. Maybe. You could have arranged for us to get on the same bus, but not for us to sit together or talk to each other, and definitely not to hang out together. 

Bucky: Right? 

Natasha: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Bucky: Natasha! How in the hell?

Natasha: Goodnight! Tell Clint I say hi. 

“Don’t think about it,” Clint said, snuggling back down against Bucky’s chest. “More cuddling and less trying to figure out Natasha.” 

Bucky dropped his phone onto the floor so he wouldn’t be tempted to text Natasha again and queued up another episode of Dog Cops. Clint was right. It didn’t matter how the two of them had met, whether it was fate or Natasha. Tonight was the start of something pretty great. 


End file.
